A Possible Future by Jason Corley

Chapter Twenty Five

Hinata sat reading a scroll laid out on the table outside the academy and waiting till Kiba decided to come out from behind the tree before saying anything. "Good afternoon." Hinata greeting in a pleasant voice and observed him as he approached.

"Yo." Kiba returned then sat down across from Hinata with Akamaru by his side.

Hinata asked "Where's your lunch Kiba?"

"I figured I'd take you somewhere." Responded Kiba.

Hinata answered in a slightly down cast voice "I see."

Kiba didn't miss this change in tone but wasn't about to back down now. As he stood Kiba said "Come on. I know a nice place. You'll like it." Hinata stared at her bento while she thought about it which caused Kiba to get nervous. He was about to say something but Hinata looked up with a smile and nodded. A huge grin spread across Kiba's face and he nearly shouted. "Let's go." Akamaru barked in agreement as he followed Kiba. Hinata quickly rolled up the scroll she had been reading and slid it into one of the scroll pouches on her Chuunin vest. As she stood up she grabbed her bento to store in her belt pouch. Her smile that she had shown Kiba had fallen now that his back was turned. As they walked along Hinata thought to herself 'Am I doing the wrong thing?'

Hinata and Kiba approached the restaurant with Kiba talking up a storm and backed up by Akamaru. Hinata listened quietly as she always did but interrupted in a polite voice when she took note of the place Kiba was about to lead them into. "Excuse me..."

Kiba paused and looked back at Hinata and asked "What's up?"

Hinata continued "I'm sorry for interrupting but..." Hinata paused and looked back and forth before saying "Isn't this place popular for couples."

Hinata thought Kiba blushed but he covered by saying "Its just a restaurant." Hinata nodded and moved forward to follow Kiba inside. Once inside Hinata was less convinced but she decided to go along with it. The host quickly seated the two of them with Akamaru curled up on the booth beside Kiba. The two of them picked up the menus that were placed on the table in front of them. Hinata glanced at the prices and realized that this wasn't just a restaurant. She looked up from the menu to see Kiba's expression from seeing the prices. Hinata quickly looked over the prices and noticed that it was set up so that if you got a shared dish then it was priced well but if you ordered separately then it was expensive. Hinata broke the silence by saying "Kiba. If you don't mind, then may we get this."

Kiba looked at what it was then at the price and said "Sure, that sounds great. Right, Akamaru?" Akamaru let out a small bark to agree. When the server returned Kiba ordered for them and looked quite pleased with himself once the server was gone. Kiba was strangely quiet and looked around anxiously. Both of them could hear whispers that included one or both their names. Hinata didn't need to look to know who was saying what. When Hinata finally looked up she saw that Kiba had been staring at her. She smiled at him which elected a huge grin from Kiba. Kiba looked off to the side then back to her then to the side when he said "You look good in uniform." When Kiba looked back he could see that Hinata was blushing slightly. Kiba having gained a bit of confidence decided to continue, "And before long I'll be wearing one also. The year's second exam isn't that far away. I'll be ready this time. You'll see. I'll make Chuunin then I'll be good enough for..." Kiba stopped realizing he had almost said too much. He looked around and saw that a lot of the other customers were now staring at him. Kiba didn't like the looks he was being given so he turned his attention towards the table. Hinata still sat quietly listening to Kiba carry on. He had started telling her how he was going to win the tournament this time. Hinata listened carefully at thought that he stood a chance. She felt that it was more than she would have had without Sasuke. That thought made her feel alone even though she was at a nice restaurant with Kiba. Hinata stared at the table and barely listened to Kiba but was brought out of her trance when their dish was placed in the middle of the table. The two of them took their chopsticks and started eating. Hinata took conservative portions while Kiba dug in along with feeding some of it to Akamaru. Hinata noticed that Kiba feed Akamaru with the chopsticks he himself used. Hinata made sure to avoid the places in the dish that Kiba was picking from.

After Kiba paid, both he and Hinata followed by Akamaru left the restaurant. Kiba looked at his wallet but when he noticed Hinata looking at him he shoved it in his pocket. Hinata smiled which same as every time made Kiba grin. Kiba was strangely quiet as they walked along. Akamaru kept quiet also and watch Kiba closely. Once they reached the academy they stopped and Kiba faced Hinata though he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes. Hinata stood there patiently waiting for Kiba to speak. Kiba finally looked up with determination in his eyes. Hinata looked back waiting for him to speak since she knew he wanted to say something. Kiba took a deep breath then stated "Hinata. I like you."

Hinata's smiled dropped along with her gaze. She couldn't look Kiba in the eyes when she said "Kiba...I'm sorry. I...I..." Kiba interrupted her by pulling her into a kiss. It was clumsy but he corrected when he kissed her a second time. When the kiss broke Hinata looked to meet Kiba's gaze with a blush reaching across her face. Kiba leaned forward to kiss her again but Hinata placed a hand on his chest and looked down when she said "Kiba...I can't."

Kiba was slightly annoyed and said "What do you mean you can't? Of course you can." Following this he lifted Hinata's chin and kissed her again.

Hinata broke the kiss and said "I'm sorry...I can't..."

Kiba asked with annoyance leaking into his voice "Why not?"

Hinata looked down and meekly said "I...I...Sasuke..."

Kiba interrupted Hinata by saying loudly as he held her at arms length "Sasuke! Sasuke isn't here!"

"Sasuke's...on a mission." Hinata quietly argued.

"Sasuke left!" Kiba argued back.

"Sasuke...will come back." Hinata responded quietly.

"He's gone!" Kiba yelled strengthening his grip on Hinata's shoulders.

"Sasuke...will...come...back." Hinata said through forming tears.

"He's probably dead. And even if he's not, he's not coming back!" Kiba argued.

Hinata dropped to the ground crying openly now. Kiba kneeled down not letting go of Hinata. As Hinata cried Kiba pulled her to him but she resisted by pushing against him. Kiba wasn't going to let her go and held her to him. When Hinata didn't stop crying even when being held, Kiba got angry and lifted her chin to kiss her. She pulled away from the kiss right way but didn't say anything other than continuing to cry. Kiba pushed Hinata on to her back to keep her from squirming and leaned down to kiss her. Kiba found himself being launched across the field outside the academy. Kiba sat up and saw Naruto breathing heavily as he stood between him and Hinata, who had curled up in a ball and continued to cry.

Naruto yelled "What do you think you're doing?" Kiba wiped the blood from his lip and stood up. Kiba didn't respond so Naruto ran forward and punched him in the face but before he could fall Naruto caught him by the collar of his jacket. Naruto pulled Kiba up to look him in the face. "What were you doing to Hinata?"

Something registered in Kiba and he looked past Naruto to see Hinata laying on the ground. Kiba's face paled and he whispered "What have I done." He pulled away from Naruto and ran as fast as he could. Naruto started to give chase but realized Kiba was faster, especially at the moment. Naruto turned around and walked back to Hinata. He didn't know what to do so he squatted down and looked to the side with his eyes closed. He didn't know what to say but he couldn't just leave her there.

"Are you sure?" Lee asked.

"Yes. I'm sure. And I'm sure you would like to return home for a bit also." Temari replied.

"Well I do but I was almost able to get through Gaara's shield." Lee commented.

Temari tensed for a moment and looked to Gaara who looked calm. Temari said "I'm sure our villages will be exchanging ninja's in the future. You can volunteer when to position become available."

"If this is the completion of this mission then I would like to say it has been nice working with you." Lee said looking at Gaara.

Gaara's gazed shifted to Lee and said "We will continue another time."

Lee smiled and gathered up his pack to head home.

When Lee was gone Gaara walked outside and headed for the desert leaving Temari to wonder what all had transpired in the village of sand since she had been gone. When Kankuro entered, she expected him to be carrying a series of puppet parts up to his room. And as expected he was doing exactly that but unexpectedly Kankuro was being helped by another Genin, who was female. Temari watched them disappear into his room and then she turned back really wonder what all had transpired.

Temari carried her bag up to her room where she stretched out on her bed. She looked around the room at the empty shelves and sighed realizing she left her books at Shikamaru's apartment. "I guess I'll just have to get new ones." Temari said to herself. She thought a bit then continued "I wonder what he's doing right now?"

Shikamaru walked into his apartment sweating from training with Asuma. Shikamaru unzipped his vest and hung it up before taking off his footwear. As he headed towards the bathroom to take a shower he stopped and looked around at the books that had made a home for themselves on a bookshelf in his apartment. Shikamaru walked over to a dresser that had books on top of it and opened the middle drawer. He found one of Temari's netted body suits and dress. He ran his hand over the fabric and smiled before saying "How troublesome."

From his crouched position Naruto peaked out the corner of his eye to look at Hinata, who had stopped crying and was now sitting up. Naruto turned his head towards Hinata but didn't open his eyes when he asked "Are you ok?" Hinata stood up suddenly, startling Naruto into falling backwards into a sitting position. He looked up at her and saw determination on her face. Naruto questioned "Hinata?"

Hinata answered in a quiet but definite tone "Sasuke's alive."

Naruto stood up and said in his usual loud but determined voice "Of course Sasuke's alive."

Hinata's gaze shifted to Naruto and she continued "Sasuke will come home."

Naruto shifted his gaze to look at the sky but didn't answer.

Hinata caught Naruto's lack of response and whispered more to herself than to Naruto "And I'll be waiting for him."

Naruto quickly turned his head to look at Hinata, who was now looking at the ground had a slight blush across her face. Naruto's expression saddened somewhat and he looked to the side when he asked in what is quiet for Naruto, "Why does everyone like him?"

Hinata caught this and asked "Naruto...don't you like Sasuke?"

Naruto's expression changed to shocked disgust and he replied in a dead pan voice "That's different."

Hinata asked "How?"

Naruto closed his eyes and crossed his arms to think about it. When he had finished thinking he said "I'm Sasuke's rival and friend. Sakura's my friend but I also like her in a different way also." After a moment of silence Naruto continued "Of course you're also my friend." Hinata looked slightly downcast noticing that Naruto only referred to her as a friend and nothing more. After another moment of silence Naruto said "What was up with Kiba. I've never seen him act that way." When Hinata didn't answer Naruto looked over to her and saw that he shouldn't have said anything because Hinata looked to be in a state of shock at remembering what happened only minutes earlier. Naruto asked in a quiet tone "Would you like me to walk you home?" Hinata could only nod. The two of them starting walking in the direction of the Uchiha manor.

As they walked Naruto noticed the people they passed whispering about them. He couldn't make out what they were saying but it did make him think about it. When Hinata stopped Naruto was brought out of his thoughts and he looked down at Hinata. She said in a polite voice "Thank you."

The two of them stood at the entrance way to the Uchiha manor for moment before Naruto said putting his hands behind his head, "Well, I need to go. I've more training to do." When Naruto turned and walked off, Hinata turned around and walked through the streets of the Uchiha manor. She didn't really look at anything but she couldn't help but see that everything looked nice. Everything had been kept up and it was thanks to Tora. Hinata stopped at one of the flower gardens that Tora had planted. The flowers looked so beautiful. She thought it added life to this once empty part of the village. It still felt empty even though she and Tora lived here. It felt empty without Sasuke. Hinata was even starting to miss Raion. Hinata continued walking but instead of going home she headed to the Uchiha training ground. Once there she jumped into the air, transitioning into a slow flip while pulling out two handfuls of shurikens and then throwing them at all the targets scattered around the training ground. When she landed she looked around to see how many hit. She was glad that they had all hit save for one. Which she could never hit. It was behind a large rock but she knew it could be hit since she had seen Sasuke do it. And unlike Sasuke she had only hit the targets instead of hitting the targets in the center. Hinata charged at the posts and drove a kunai into one then kicking off it into a back flip to throw a group of shurikens at her target. When she landed she jumped into a series of kicks and palm heel attacks. Her training if someone listened closely could be heard long into the night.

Sakura walked out of the hospital with Tsunade and Shizune. All three were hunched over as they walked. Shizune was the first to speak "What a day."

"I'm so tired." Sakura responded.

"I need a drink." Tsunade stated.

Shizune stood up quickly and said in a loud voice "You aren't going to go out drinking tonight are you?" When Tsunade only smiled Shizune continued "Because of all the wounded today, all of today's work will need to be handled tomorrow."

Tsunade put her arm across Shizune's shoulders and said "You need a drink also."

"But..but..but." Shizune stuttered being drug along by Tsunade.

Tsunade commanded "No buts. That includes you Sakura." Tsunade turned around to see that Sakura was gone. Tsunade squinted her eyes and said "Why that little...Come on Shizune. We have a long night of drinking ahead of us."

Sakura for her part just kept walking once she was out of the hospital. The summer heat was only making her sweat more even though she was already sweating from exhausting herself making sure all the wounded were cared for. All Sakura wanted was to be in bed. When Sakura meet the door she propped on hand on the door as she pulled out her keys. She unlocked the door and walked inside. Sakura kicked off her footwear and as she walked through the dark room she pealed off her clothes. Once to the bed she crawled under the covers for a well deserved sleep.

Hinata returned home and sat down to remove her footwear. She stood up and walked past the living room, which no one was in, to the master bedroom. As she walked to the wardrobe she unzipped her vest and took it off. She hung it up and grabbed a blue kimono. She carried it with her to the bath room where she undressed and got into the tub to let the stress of the day melt away. As she sat in the tub she couldn't help but let the tears crawl down her face.

Tora stood outside the bathroom with a sad expression but eventually she walked down the hall to her room to find that it was empty like it had been for so long. She suddenly felt a great deal of sadness that her sister wasn't there and as she crawled into bed she too started to cry.

Sasuke ran along the trail carrying Raion in his arms. She was clinging tightly to him with her eyes closed. Sasuke didn't spare any attention to look back, he frantically scanned the terrain ahead of him. Hebi did draw a little of his attention when he hissed "They are getting closser Masster." When Sasuke didn't answer Hebi hissed "They will kill uss." When Sasuke still didn't answer Hebi hissed "They will kill your sslave."

Sasuke retorted "I won't let them."

Hebi hissed "And how do you plan to sstop them?" When Sasuke didn't answer Hebi hissed "May I make a ssuggesstion Masster." Sasuke nodded so Hebi hissed "Tossss the sslave."

Sasuke looked back at Hebi with his Sharingan active. Hebi only laughed "Sss sss sss. Do you think sstaring at me like that will make it any lessss true? Sshe iss slowing uss down." When Sasuke looked away without saying anything Hebi laughed again "Sss sss sss."

Sasuke ran for several minutes and was beginning to wonder if he would find a place for what he was planning. Using one of his the sound jutsu he had learned Sasuke was able to hear anything that the stone ninja said but they didn't say anything blatantly useful but he listened none the less. He could also hear that three of them were getting tired. He knew that he had run across a team. Sasuke asked Hebi "Is he a Jounin?"

Hebi hissed back "Sss sss sss. Sscared of him?" When Sasuke didn't answer Hebi hissed "Perhapss he'ss a Chuunin."

Sasuke said "I can't take that chance."

Hebi laughed "Sss sss sss. That'ss very ssmart. Of coursse if he iss a Jounin you will have a hard time of thiss."

Sasuke didn't answer and just continued to run. He was running not only to save his life to the lives of Raion and Hebi. Although he felt Hebi would be able to slither off and save himself if worst came to worst. After several more minutes Sasuke said in anger "Damn it, this is why I want to be stronger. I am sick and tired of running away!" Raion opened her eyes to Sasuke's outburst and to their sudden change in movement.